Hi everyone,
I just got mt PR application approved and did my landing yesterday to finalise the PR process. I just want to share my experience as it is rather unique and might give insight to other people who might come in similar situation.
I did my Master's in Canada and was on PGWP before applying for PR. I also got married and my wife was on student permit in Canada at the time of application. I had enough points just by myself and applied for PR on July 29 with everything in place. We had got out medicals and everything done.
After we submitted the application, our immigration doctor called us and said that they might come back and ask for more information based on the report the radiologist wrote. She was just trying to give us heads up. Within one week, my wife got email from CIC asking her to meet the immigration doctor. We met her and she told us they are asking for more information and asked us to get CT scan done. We found a family physician and explained him the whole story and he tried his best to get a CT scan appointment. This was our first interaction with Canadian medical system that too in Toronto and we understood why a lot of people are so frustrated with the system. We got out CT scan done and sent the results to CIC. This was all done within a month of CIC asking us for more details.
Again within one week, CIC came back and asked for more details, this time a specialist's letter. At this point, we were very hopeless because of all the struggle that we were going through. Anxiety of some unknown medical issue, financial stuff and uncertain future immigration status as my wife's current visa was expiring on Dec 30 (we had applied for her PGWP but this was gonna take some time). Again, we were out in the wild trying to find a specialist who could see us quickly. Generally the wait time is 2 months in Toronto. Our family physician helped us again, we met the doctor and got another procedure done before he could write the final report. We explained everything to him. Both on immigration and medical front, he was very understanding and did write a proper report for us to give to CIC. We gave this report to CIC on Nov 23. Now this is 4 months in and we haven't yet crossed medical approval state as of yet. Now after this report, CIC really fast tracked the process. Within a couple of weeks we saw, medical getting approved and application entering final stages, just saying doing background check. On Dec 15, we got our final letter asking for passport. I sent the passports out and on Dec 30, we got out passports back with CoPR. Same day, my wife's visa and SIN were expiring.
Yesterday we did the landing at Kingston coz we were very much aware of the mess at Niagara. The process was smooth af. There were like 3-4 people and the Americans were understanding of the situation. On the American side, it took us 30 mins mostly because our officer was very new and they were training her. On Canadian side, it took us 5 mins to get our things approved and in order.
So I guess people who are in this kind of situation or if someone sees this in future, our experience might help you. From outside, because of lack of transparency, we might at times think CIC is borderline harassing us but that's certainly not the case. They are trying to follow a process. My experience with CIC has been great. My own student permit was approved within a week and my wife's was approved within 5 hrs. We had some struggle with Canadian medical system but its just a systemic failure. All of our doctors were very amazing and helpful. One thing is that we kept paying in cash for everything and then claimed from insurance later some of which is still not approved. So I guess, hang in there if you are going through tough time, keep CIC informed of everything, try your best to keep doing things they ask. And keep some cash in hand coz it never hurts. This forum has helped me a lot and that's why I am posting this here. Hope it helps some people. If anyone comes in a similar situation and wants to talk to me, feel free to reach out.
Cheers,
Nitish
I just got mt PR application approved and did my landing yesterday to finalise the PR process. I just want to share my experience as it is rather unique and might give insight to other people who might come in similar situation.
I did my Master's in Canada and was on PGWP before applying for PR. I also got married and my wife was on student permit in Canada at the time of application. I had enough points just by myself and applied for PR on July 29 with everything in place. We had got out medicals and everything done.
After we submitted the application, our immigration doctor called us and said that they might come back and ask for more information based on the report the radiologist wrote. She was just trying to give us heads up. Within one week, my wife got email from CIC asking her to meet the immigration doctor. We met her and she told us they are asking for more information and asked us to get CT scan done. We found a family physician and explained him the whole story and he tried his best to get a CT scan appointment. This was our first interaction with Canadian medical system that too in Toronto and we understood why a lot of people are so frustrated with the system. We got out CT scan done and sent the results to CIC. This was all done within a month of CIC asking us for more details.
Again within one week, CIC came back and asked for more details, this time a specialist's letter. At this point, we were very hopeless because of all the struggle that we were going through. Anxiety of some unknown medical issue, financial stuff and uncertain future immigration status as my wife's current visa was expiring on Dec 30 (we had applied for her PGWP but this was gonna take some time). Again, we were out in the wild trying to find a specialist who could see us quickly. Generally the wait time is 2 months in Toronto. Our family physician helped us again, we met the doctor and got another procedure done before he could write the final report. We explained everything to him. Both on immigration and medical front, he was very understanding and did write a proper report for us to give to CIC. We gave this report to CIC on Nov 23. Now this is 4 months in and we haven't yet crossed medical approval state as of yet. Now after this report, CIC really fast tracked the process. Within a couple of weeks we saw, medical getting approved and application entering final stages, just saying doing background check. On Dec 15, we got our final letter asking for passport. I sent the passports out and on Dec 30, we got out passports back with CoPR. Same day, my wife's visa and SIN were expiring.
Yesterday we did the landing at Kingston coz we were very much aware of the mess at Niagara. The process was smooth af. There were like 3-4 people and the Americans were understanding of the situation. On the American side, it took us 30 mins mostly because our officer was very new and they were training her. On Canadian side, it took us 5 mins to get our things approved and in order.
So I guess people who are in this kind of situation or if someone sees this in future, our experience might help you. From outside, because of lack of transparency, we might at times think CIC is borderline harassing us but that's certainly not the case. They are trying to follow a process. My experience with CIC has been great. My own student permit was approved within a week and my wife's was approved within 5 hrs. We had some struggle with Canadian medical system but its just a systemic failure. All of our doctors were very amazing and helpful. One thing is that we kept paying in cash for everything and then claimed from insurance later some of which is still not approved. So I guess, hang in there if you are going through tough time, keep CIC informed of everything, try your best to keep doing things they ask. And keep some cash in hand coz it never hurts. This forum has helped me a lot and that's why I am posting this here. Hope it helps some people. If anyone comes in a similar situation and wants to talk to me, feel free to reach out.
Cheers,
Nitish
